All Hail the Egg Beater

Egg Beater Omelet with fresh spinach and summer yellow tomatoes, basil and brown rice

Breakfast is a meal that used to be treated as pure fuel for the morning rush — if I had the time with my busy lifestyle, I’d usually grab a buttery Kaiser roll with my choice of fried nitrate-enhanced meat and two fried eggs, and coffee in that all-too-familiar blue paper cup with the Greek iconography on it from a “roach coach” or the local deli on the way to work, and wolf it down, usually soiling my shirt in the process. It was high calorie, fattening, and probably had enough cholesterol in it to kill a rogue elephant.

With my recent lifestyle change, I now approach breakfast from a different mindset entirely. One, I see it as something that should be enjoyed and not rushed. Two, it most definitely is the most important meal of the day, but it also should not contribute to harming my health. So with that in mind, and with my current 110 cholesterol count as validation (in my test results prior to October, there was arguably more cholesterol than blood) I’ve become a huge fan of the Egg Beater.

Do you fear or adore the Egg Beater? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

“Western” Egg Beater Omelet with Smoked Tofu and Cheddar Cheese, served with Whole Grain Toast and Fruit

Call them Egg Whites, Egg Beaters, Egg Substitute — this versatile and somewhat maligned liquid low fat and low cholesterol protein is actually not bad when used in combination with other ingredients to make some pretty damn good breakfasts. Rachel and I use it mostly to make omelettes and breakfast burritos, as a binder ingredient for lots of vegetables and other proteins, such as vegetarian sausage substitutes, turkey bacon and smoked tofu (which actually approximates the taste of cubed ham in “Western” omelettes when combined with a small amount of cheese).

Egg Beater Breakfast Burrito with Spinach, Salsa, Whole Grain Wrap and Refried Beans

Saute up your choice of vegetables using PAM or other low-calorie/low-cholesterol spray and season with salt, pepper and hot sauce, scrambling with the Egg Beaters. We also like the Mrs. Dash low-salt seasoning blends to kick things up a bit. Seasoning is key to taking a rather bland ingredient and making it taste good.

Toast your favorite brand of whole grain or low-carb wrap directly on the burner, so it gets nice and warm and crispy on the outside.

Low Fat Refried Beans, made by companies like Ortega, Old El Paso and Whole Foods are a great way to add flavor as well as additional protein to your breakfast. The real Mexican brands often contain lard, so watch out and read the labels and nutritional information.

Salsa, made with high quality canned tomatoes that are low in sugar (Check Whole Foods and Trader Joes for good brands) combined with fresh onions, cilantro and fresh chiles makes an excellent component to breakfast burritos.

Voila. The Garden Vegetable Breakfast Burrito.

One of the neat tricks we have learned for reducing fat content is using non-stick cooking pans and using Silicone basting brushes to put a small amount of oil into the pan. It goes a long way.

Here’s an omelet filling of onions, green pepper and mushrooms. and a small amount of cheese.

To which we added some leftover marinara sauce that we made for our Italian Pizza Burger.

For extra protein, we also browned up a little bit of Vegetarian Italian Sausage we bought at Whole Foods. Like a lof of these vegetarian meat analogues, you don’t want to eat them by themselves, but they work very well as components of other dishes.

And here’s the end result.